Inside the New York Yankees clubhouse with MLB.com beat writer Bryan Hoch.

Granderson looks dandy in left

Curtis Granderson departed the stadium before we could talk to him about his afternoon in left field, but from an observer’s point of view, it didn’t seem like he had much trouble at all out there.

Granderson made a nice play in the third inning running toward the seats to snag a Nick Markakis ball near the foul line, and on the next play he had to run back to track down a Miguel Tejada fly. Granderson also snagged a Cesar Izturis fly ball in the fifth inning.

“It was a tough wind & sun day,” Joe Girardi said. “It wasn’t an easy day to play left field. I thought he looked good.”

Girardi said that he’ll mix Granderson and Brett Gardner between left field and center field the rest of the spring.

When the clubhouse opened to reporters in the fifth inning, Nick Johnson was sprawled on the carpet in a deep stretch, trying to keep flexible between at-bats. He’s looked pretty good so far to Girardi, who says that Johnson “really fits that bill” for the No. 2 spot.

“I’m extremely pleased with what he’s doing,” Girardi said. “A lot of long counts, he’s pulled balls, he’s hit balls over the left fielder’s head and the right fielder’s head, through the middle – quality at-bat after quality at-bat.”

18 Comments

Bob,
The return of Aussie Bryan and a few of the former “regulars” would do much to boost the quality here! Many leave in the off-season and I suspect that some are no longer able to post during their work hours and we miss them. I’ll send out some direct invitations to return as I did last year and we’ll hope for the best!!!

Gidday Mate,
Out of Hibernation? But, wait… it was just Summer down under, so hibernation doesn’t fit at all!!! Yes, the combination of Granderson and Johnson will not match the power production of Damon/Matsui but some of my sources still expect the Yanks will not want for total run production! It’s also hard to predict how the big three pitchers will do this year but Vazquez should lighten the load. And if Joba continues to be mediocre as a starter, he may return to the pen where he’s a star!

Sorry mate but sadly there is nothing one can do with idiots especially those with a racist view point. I too have stayed away from posting anything. Hopefully it is just idiots coming out of their winter hibernation with having nothing to do.

Robert mate Thanks for all the winter updates and only 20 days to go. If I was seriously asked to rate the 2010 team against the 2009 line up, I would have to give it a 6-7 out of ten although Johnson is showing good signs though he will never reproduce the deeds of Matsui and Damon. It is the pitching that REALLY REALLY concerns me.CC . Burnett Pettitte if he can go again as he did last year, then what Vasquez Hughes Chamberlain Aceves Gaudin it just appears a concern.

Brian/Robert: This blog has really gone down hill so far this year. Who are these jerks that are making comments on this blog? They’re not really Yankees fans and they’re racist and ignorant. Why don’t people stick with baseball? Hopefully this is only spring training for this blog as well as baseball and once the regular season starts we’ll get back some of the bloggers that made a positive contribution to baseball and to the Yankees in 2009. Until it changes I’m not going to waste my time reading or commenting.

Another loss in spring training and so far not a very good record. Not only that but the starting pitching so far has not torn things up. Alba is his usual terrible relief pitching self, a continuation of last year. I hope they don’t carry him on the roster. And the hitting hasn’t been great this spring training either. The Yankees haven’t put many runs on the board. Another slow and bad start like 2009? I know people will say, “Yeh, but they won the world series” Maybe so, but I’m not sure if you can get off to bad start every year and fight back to win the world series. It takes a lot of energy and guys have to really turn it around in a hurry. But I’ve been proven wrong before!

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